"So yeah, you need to know the deck... I don’t really understand the objection to this."
Imagine this conversation:
"Hey, want to play this game? It's three hours long, plus rules explanation."
"Is it difficult?"
"Not especially, but I know the cards and you don't, so you're pretty much guaranteed to lose. Still, if you play it with me repeatedly you might eventually be able to give me a decent fight."
"Couldn't we do something fun instead?"
I find that's the tough part about introducing friends to a new game - you're either starting an introductory run-through with training wheels, which annoys my friends who like to compete, or you're just diving in head first and stomping your friend until they finally pick it up. Which as you say is not always just a ton of fun.
It should be available to backers and non-backers alike right now. The password is "motherrussia"
Hmm, is anyone else getting the '404- page not found' for page 2? No? Just me?
(probably something that broke when you updated the article. It's cool, I'm patient like that *repeatedly mashes F5*)
I find games involving bluffing and forming alliances are a lot easier to introduce people to, since those aren't so dependent on experience.
A game like TS might work best when two players buy and learn it together.
I'm getting the same thing as well, CraigM.
yup
Fixed! Sorry about that. Lots of site issues today. Is there a WordPress doctor in the house?
In case it's not clear from the write up, one of the most important tips when you're playing Twilight Struggle is not to play it against Bruce Geryk.
"One of the few things I miss from the actual physical boardgame is that
the manual includes a paragraph or so of history for each card."
Actually if you go to settings -> card gallery -> history you can see the same text for each card in the game. It's hidden behind a couple menus, but it's in there.
Oh, cool! And you can access from the main game while you're waiting on Bruce to take his turn, right? Thanks for the heads-up, Kevin.
I understand that complaint, but we may play games for different reasons. I wouldn't mind playing a game for three hours and then losing if the game were really interesting. I wouldn't mind playing it a bunch of times and losing if it were a really good game. And I would always pick up a game with a theme I like over a game without one.
"A game like TS might work best when two players buy and learn it together."
That's ideal, I agree.
Agreed here. My ratio of enjoyment possibility to win likelihood is very high; I don't really care much if I win a game. I care about thematic depth, strategic possibility, and having fun around a table with friends.
Thanks much for this writeup; it's very helpful to see the strategy you both are thinking about when you play. I played the tutorial on the digital version, but then was lost because strategy is still pretty opaque; your playthrough has really helped.
Corrections:
Page 1 - "something that I'm sure [was] a lot less hilarious"
Page 2 - "One of the best part[s] of the Twilight Struggle design"
Page 4 - "Ben[-]Gurion"
Page 5 - "boycotting take[s] it to Defcon 1"
Page 6 - "2!."
Page 8 - "the Soviets can conducts [sic] coups"
I've played a lot of this game and I agree it should really go with 2d6.
Normally the luck swing is merely annoying with regular coups. You can always guard against coups by placing more influence than you need. You can doubly guard against realignments.
My problem is the war cards (Korean War, Indo-Pakistan War, Arab-Israeli War). It is such a MASSIVE swing if you that 1d6 roll goes your way. Flipping all your opponent's influence to your own is HUGE. You can try controlling adjacent countries to lower the chances, but that just means more to lose.
The biggest problem though is the Quagmire/Bear Trap cards. I hate those things with a capital 'H'. Should be removed from the game. You miss your next turn and are forced to throw away a card with a 2in3 chance of canceling the effect. If you roll a 5 or 6, you miss your next turn and again have to throw away a card to roll again. There is absolutely no forward planning or mitigating actions to guard against these cards. It's just pure dumb luck and it's such a huge swing to miss a turn. If the Soviet player headlines Quagmire, he gets a guaranteed two turns in a row. More if the U.S. player fails a roll. Can you imagine getting multiple turns in a row in Chess or Go? It's just as crushing in Twilight Struggle.
Fuck those cards.